Pentagon bans confederate flags on military property
Military to reject divisive symbols; Jennifer Griffin reports.
The last Army post with a Confederate namesake rebranded last week, completing an almost three-year effort to wipe Civil War-era names from military installations.
Fort Gordon, Georgia, an Army post named after Confederate Lt. Gen. John Gordon, is now officially named Fort Eisenhower after the ceremony Friday, honoring former President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who previously served as supreme commander of Allied forces in the European Theater during World War II.
"Rising from second lieutenant to commander-in-chief, Eisenhower's extensive, innovative, and effective military experience and leadership shaped our modern world," Maj. Gen. Paul Stanton, Fort Eisenhower's commander, said in a statement.
"His dedication to ensuring equal rights for soldiers and citizens alike continues to be an example and inspiration for the present and future soldiers of the Army he so faithfully served and decisively led."
MILITARY INSTALLATIONS, SHIPS NAMED AFTER CONFEDERATES BEGIN RENAMING PROCESS
This image shows the entrance to then-Fort Gordon, a U.S. Army installation that has been renamed Fort Eisenhower. (Demetrius Freeman / Washington Post via Getty Images / File)
The change completes a nearly three-year effort to scrub Confederate names from U.S. military installations, which started with the bipartisan Congressional Renaming Commission in 2020.
Fort Eisenhower was one of nine military installations to receive a name change, including large and well-known installations such as Fort Cavazos, Texas, which was formerly known as Fort Hood, and Fort Liberty, North Carolina, which was formerly known as Fort Bragg.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower, center (Getty)
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin carried out the legislation to change the names, saying last year that the new names should reflect the values of all Americans.
"The names of these installations and facilities should inspire all those who call them home, fully reflect the history and the values of the United States, and commemorate the best of the republic that we are all sworn to protect," Austin said, according to a report from Military.com.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin (AP Photo / Andrew Harnik / File)
Gordon was among the most controversial of Confederate leaders with a military installation named after him. A slaveholding plantation owner before his service in the Confederate army, Gordon would go on to serve as a state legislator and later governor of Georgia following the war.
According to the Military.com report, he was also believed to be a highly ranked Ku Klux Klan leader in Georgia, rising to the rank of "Grand Dragon."
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Gordon died in 1904, with the installation being named after him in 1941.
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